Melbourne fans have seen it all before in 2023. Poor starts and poor kicking for goal. Ultimately, it was what cost Melbourne a Preliminary final berth (at this point) by losing to Collingwood.
Apparently, it was only the second time in 85 years that the Pies had beaten Melbourne in a final, but history meant nothing when the Black and White came out breathing fire in the first quarter, and completely ran over the Demons.
In the ruck, Mason Cox set the tone, and won the first nine hit outs against Max Gawn, while Braydon Maynard was true to his word about being physical in this game when he wiped out Angus Brayshaw in the early going. The battered Demon departed on a stretcher and will not play in the next game at the very least.
Surely, the Demons would have expected this? Going into the game with only one ruck meant Max would be targeted. And Maynard and Adams have reputations from the past.
The result was that Collingwood took a three-goal lead into the first change, while once again, the Demons could only manage a single major for the opening term. And that was from the downfield free kick after the Brayshaw incident.
That lead which would prove to be the difference in the end.
From that poor start, the Demons started to get themselves into the game overcoming that first quarter trouncing. Unbelievably, they were down ten in the contested possessions game in the first stanza, showing how poor their start had been.
By then end of the game, they had “out contested” the Pies, but it was to be all too late, after that ordinary opening term.
Even at half-time, with the momentum of the game changing, Melbourne had only managed to score one more major. Two goals to half time in a final is never going to get the victory. This was despite more than doubling the Pies inside 50 entries, but Melbourne just couldn’t score goals when needed, and after all the hard work to get the ball there in the first place.
It was to be the recurrent theme for the rest of the match. Melbourne winning just about every statistic but little on the scoreboard to show for it.
In one respect, this demonstrated the fallacy of statistics. They are a numerical representation of actions in the past, but they fail to show the quality of those actions, or whether there is an association with final outcomes. In this game, there was nothing more amply demonstrated.
Kicking for goal was again the Achilles heel for Melbourne 7.11 for the match and several out on the full. It was almost an identical result as the Kings Birthday game when Melbourne posted 8.18. Had Melbourne scored points from all of those out of bounds it would have made the difference between winning and losing.
And while many criticise the Demon forwards, the fact is the options aren’t available in the absence of the injured Brown, Petty and Melksham. Petty would all be playing in that role if not injured, while Schache hasn’t shown much to justify a spot, even with all these injuries to others. Then when Angus went down, it meant Petracca had to spend more time in the middle, thus taking away another forward threat.
It also doesn’t help when the coaches persist with putting Max outside the 50m arc when in attack and letting the full forward take the ruck leaving his opponent free to do whatever he wanted. Surely winning the ball in the forward 50 should be the target?
The final quarter became a hope of comeback for the Demons, and they scored three majors, while holding Collingwood to a mere two points with the ball living almost exclusively in Melbourne’s forward half. But it was all too little too late, although even in that final effort, there were misses which should have resulted in two fingers from the goal umpire, which were not.
The chance was there, and to put it simply, the Demons blew it!
Despite a poor opening, Max finally took control in the ruck, without any backup, and finished with 31 hit outs, 22 disposals including 10 clearances.
Clayton Oliver was outstanding with 31 touches resulting in an incredible 742 metres gained.
The backline were the real heroes, who at the end of the match had held Collingwood to a meagre 60 points, including that paltry 2 behinds in the final quarter. They did everything right, since they denied the Pies their basic game plan with May, Lever and Bowey all with nine intercept possessions. Michael Hibberd held the dangerous Jamie Elliott to two points, and it was only Hill who broke free on several occasions to really give Collingwood the win with his three goals.
This game was feeling of Déjà vu or Deeja Vu for the Melbourne fans. They know all too well how this type of game would finish.
Now the question will be does Deeja Vu happen again in the coming week, as the Demons are facing another straight sets exit from the finals.
MELBOURNE 1.0.6 2.4.16 4.9.33 7.11.53
COLLINGWOOD 4.2.26 5.3.33 9.4.58 9.6.60
GOALS
MELBOURNE Fritsch 2 Pickett McDonald Neal-Bullen Smith Sparrow
COLLINGWOOD Hill 3 McStay 2 Cameron Crisp De Goey Mihocek
BEST
MELBOURNE Gawn Oliver Pickett Hunter Petracca Neal-Bullen
COLLINGWOOD Crisp Sidebottom Hoskin-Elliott Quaynor Hill Murphy
INJURIES
MELBOURNE Angus Brayshaw (concussion)
COLLINGWOOD Nil
REPORTS
MELBOURNE Nil
COLLINGWOOD Nil
SUBSTITUTIONS
MELBOURNE Bailey Laurie (replaced Angus Brayshaw in first quarter)
COLLINGWOOD Jack Ginnivan (replaced Darcy Cameron in fourth quarter)
UMPIRES Matt Stevic Curtis Deboy Andrew Stephens Hayden Gavine
CROWD 92,636 at the MCG
